The Problem of Evil/ Dream Problem
Philosophy Essay: The Problem of Evil / Dream ProblemSt. Augustine accepted Plato's view that there are two realms: the intelligible realm and the visible realm. I indeed also believe this to be true. Like Plato, St. Augustine believed in the existence of something infinite and eternal apart from the world of sensible objects. However, instead of adopting an idea similar to that of Platonic Forms, St. Augustine advocated the highest being to be God. Certain aspects of God shortly became a bit controversial. Soon The Problem of Evil arose. First, St. Augustine solely believed that God created the world out of nothing, which was stated in the Old Testament. Greek thinkers of the day had great trouble believing something such as this. They simply thought that creating something out of nothing was impossible. I, on the other hand, do not believe it to be impossible. Like St. Augustine, I believe that God created the world ex nihilo, creation out of nothing. The way I see it, creation out of nothing does seem humanly impossible, but very possible to God. It is incredibly hard to contemplate seeing a human, a tree, anything being brought into the world out of thin air, but it is possible. I am here on earth now.
Finally, St. Augustine agreed that God is omnipotent, or all-powerful. Skeptics argued that if God is omnipotent, then why does he not stop evil from even happening. Why does he not do this? Well, in my opinion, God does not stop it from happening simply because this is the way he wants his world to be. Maybe I am not philosophic material. Maybe I am not as open minded as most feel that I should be. However, I believe what I believe, and I always will. I cannot always give reasons to these beliefs, and I do not feel that I should have to. St. Augustine rebounded with three attempts to justify the evil world under a benevolent God. In his first attempt, he claims that evil is not a thing in and of itself, it is simply a lack of or defect of good. From this, he proclaims that there cannot be a problem of evil because there is no such thing as evil. Though I feel that this is an interesting point, I do not believe it to be totally true or pertinent. Evil does exist (in space-time). The lack of good is evil (in space-time). Therefore, the problem of evil can and does exist, but only to those who doubt the supremacy of God and are bound to burn in the flames of damnation for eternity. His second attempt dealt with causality. St. Augustine believed that there is a very important distinction between kn
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Approximate Word count = 883
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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